Prince Charles also spoke about "unsustainable" rise in house prices on visit
to east London

The Prince of Wales joked about his German roots today when he was given a giant pretzel by a member of the public yesterday.

Petra Braun, a baker from Stuttgart, handed him the family-sized bread snack, telling him: “Since you’re almost German, you might like this.”

The Prince, whose great great great grandfather Prince Albert was from Coburg in Germany, laughed and said: “That was a very long time ago.”

Mrs Braun, 47, who opened the Hansel and Pretzel bakery in Ham, west London, 10 years ago, said: “I didn’t know he was going to be in the area until my customers told me about 10 minutes before he arrived. I went out to see him and thought I’d better take him a gift. As Germans we are aware that we have a connection to the Royal family.”

The Prince was in the area to see how his Prince’s Foundation for the Building Community was helping to rejuvenate the area with Richmond Council.

Later, at the Housing London Symposium in east London, the Prince warned that the capital’s inexorable house price rise is not "sustainable" and risks driving away young talent.

With the average house price in London expected to rise to £650,000 in 2020, he said the hope of home ownership for those starting their careers in London was becoming "further and further out of reach".

The Prince has attracted controversy in the past by criticising individual building schemes, but his forthright views on house prices will chime with millions of people struggling to get on the property ladder.

With a typical price of £458,000, house prices in the capital are now nearly 23 per cent higher than their 2008 pre-financial crisis peak, according to figures released this week by the Office for National Statistics.

During the 12 months to January London property values rose 13.2 per cent.

The Prince’s Foundation has produced a report suggesting that mid-rise buildings could be the solution.

The Prince stated that, for a healthy city to prosper, it "requires a built environment that provides good quality housing, the integration of nature and green spaces at its heart, walkable, mixed-use neighbourhoods, good public transport and an identity that fosters pride and a sense of belonging."

He went on to say that the problems with social housing were now well known and that its high-rise blocks caused "alienation and social dysfunction".

The Prince added: "It is why I feel so strongly that we must build places which combine market-rate and affordable housing seamlessly, and create places where people actually want to live, that are built with an eye to enduring appeal and where, for example, people can walk from their house or flat to the shop and to the local school."

He highlighted the conclusion of the report: "Mid-rise buildings of between five and eight storeys make ecological sense too as they are more adaptable than high-rise, easier to build out of natural materials, are easier to repair and still work for people when the lift is broken or there is a power cut.

"On the building side, mid-rise buildings also allow a greater diversity of developers and builders as the initial outlays required by high-rise buildings make it the business of relatively few.

"For these reasons, I am greatly encouraged by the report's central recommendation that we should consider mid-rise as one of the key solutions to London's necessary expansion."